TelCoa thanks U.S. Representatives Jim Himes, Rosa DeLauro, and Elizabeth Esty for introducing the Multi-State Worker Tax Fairness Act, H.R. 4085, 113th Congress.
We strongly support this crucial legislation. The bill would finally eliminate the telecommuter tax, a steep penalty often resulting in double taxation of income that interstate telecommuters earn at home. The telecommuter tax unfairly burdens telecommuters and their employers and limits telework adoption. Congress must make the Multi-State Worker Tax Fairness Act law!
TelCoa and other advocates are working to secure the bill’s enactment, but we need your help!
>>>Read More...

Guest Columnist

4 Great Examples of Telework’s Impact
by: Brie Weiler Reynolds
As champions of telecommuting and flexible work options for all, we certainly don’t have to tell TelCoa readers about the benefits of telework--we all know and love them. But as organizations like ours work to spread awareness of, and support for, flexible ways of working, it’s really important to remember the individuals for whom we work--the millions of professionals whose lives would be positively impacted by more access to telework and flexible jobs.
At 1 Million for Work Flexibility, we hear daily from supporters about why they support the expansion of flexible work options for all. Here are four great examples of why work flexibility, including telework, is vitally important to individuals, to companies, and to society.
>>>Read the entire blog at...

Hot Topics & Links

"Working from home not for everyone, but it can still be a 'win-win' for many workers and employers" is an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer featuring TelCoa President Chuck Wilsker and Advisory Board member Diane Stegmeier.
For the complete article,
>click-here...
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Our Vision is to take a more proactive than reactive approach towards promoting telework and telecommuting and fill the void left by other telework advocacy groups. We will develop an overall awareness and acceptance of the benefits available including:

increased employee productivity and motivation

reduced vehicular pollution

traffic reduction

improved work~life balance

a reduced dependency on imported oil

providing new employment opportunities for the disabled, rural, and older worker, as well as spouses of those in the military

a means to efficiently and effectively establish a decentralized and distributed work force that is necessary as a critical component in business continuity and disaster recovery planning.

Through our efforts we will help the number of teleworkers and telecommuters grow to reach what we feel is its true potential. We will create opportunities for the businesses and services that support our efforts and us, and have invested so much time and money developing the tools and technologies necessary to establish successful telework programs.

Our Mission is to bring together a diverse array of organizations, companies, and individuals with the common interest of promoting awareness and adoption of existing and emerging Telework and Telecommuting applications including telemedicine and distance learning, as well as addressing access to broadband services that may be needed to support these applications.

The organization has the following goals:

To promote and expand the utilization of Telework applications through the education of Federal, State and local elected officials, and employers and employees in both the public and private sectors, as to their benefits.

To work with policy makers in developing incentives including tax credits for employers and employees who engage in telework programs, accelerated equipment depreciation, and establishing pilot telework, telemedicine, and distance learning programs.

To inform the public of these available incentives to accelerate their adoption and use.

To bring together, on an ongoing basis, notable experts who, by exchanging ideas and research findings, can develop creative new approaches to help government agencies, businesses and other entities take the fullest possible advantage of the many workplace opportunities and efficiencies that evolving technologies offer us.

To address the ever growing concerns about traffic congestion, the environment, and work~life balance.

To build awareness of Telework as a critical component in the establishment of a decentralized and distributed workforce that is necessary when addressing business continuity and disaster recovery planning.

And therefore, to help convey the concept that “work is something you do, not someplace you go”.

Toward these goals, the Telework Coalition will organize disparate constituencies and provide a platform neutral voice to call for State and Federal policies to empower greater utilization of Telework applications, to develop and implement incentives, including tax incentives, to encourage both employers and employees to make the investments necessary to start new or enhance existing telework programs, and for immediate increases in the development and deployment of technologies to enhance their advancement.

The Problems we face are that there are few applications that can effectively address so many of today’s economic, social, environmental, and traffic related issues as Telework and Telecommuting, yet there is still a reluctance of many businesses and Governmental agencies to adopt aggressive Telework programs.

Some blame this on either a lack of deployment of broadband Internet access technologies, or a refusal of those who have access to broadband to adopt it as a cost effective means of remote work. Some groups, such as Broadband for America have been formed to encourage the adoption of broadband as a means of facilitating “e-work, e-government, e-health, e-education, and e-entertainment.

Others adopt the traditional excuses that it’s the fault of managers who feel either that `out of site is out of mind’ or ‘how do I know they’re working if I can’t watch over them. For some, it’s just a hesitation to change. There is no one good reason or another, but Telework in an idea whose time has come.

The major incentives for adopting telework as a way of life and way of work include:
1. Reduction of traffic congestion that, in many areas, has surpassed education as the number one concern of voters

2. Our need to clean the air we breathe and the water we drink.

3. The desire for a greater work~life balance that has driven many workers to desire telework over pay increases.

4. The economic benefits to both employers who can save an average of $20,000 per year per full time teleworker and employees who can put an average of $8,400 take home back into their pockets each year.

5. The need for a more decentralized, dispersed, and distributed workforce is necessary when developing contingency plans for dealing with emergencies caused by traffic congestion and disasters either naturally occurring or caused by man himself.

6. The need for economic development by bringing jobs to rural and disabled workers.

7. The fact that a considerable percentage of the workforce, the ‘baby-boomers’, will soon be retiring and leaving many jobs without the skilled labor pool necessary to refill them.